


subways (taking the midnight train to nowhere)

by karass



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Awkward Romance, Cheesy, Christmas Eve, Fluff, M/M, New York City, Strangers to Lovers, Subways, kind of i suppose, so think about it as john green just gay, this really is pretentious banter between two teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27711833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karass/pseuds/karass
Summary: Being stuck in an empty subway car at midnight with one other stranger can lead to many things. There's always the possibility of getting mugged or maybe finding someone who just gets you. Johnny and Ten are glad that they find the latter on Christmas Eve together.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84
Collections: Challenge #3 — soulmates





	subways (taking the midnight train to nowhere)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first time writing for Little Wonder Fest and although I worked on it INCREDIBLY last minute, I still really enjoyed writing it nonetheless. Something about pairing up this duo and New York winters just hit differently >__<
> 
> Although my interpretation of 'soulmates' here might differ from how they're usually written, I hope you find it interesting to read. 
> 
> Make sure to leave a comment and/or kudos if you'd like to share anything with me, I'll definitely make sure to respond and engage with you in a discussion! If you don't want to share below, you can hit me up on [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.qa/ODETO10)

Visiting Dumbo was a mistake. That much Johnny knows as he slams his dollar store pen onto his worn out SAT practice book. He should’ve stayed in Manhattan and done all the cheesy Christmas Eve things he’d usually do on a normal year, maybe even hit up Union Square with Jaehyun to get that really good apple cider they got last week. But no, of course he had to take the hard road and go halfway across the city to Brooklyn for the sake of it.

Well, not quite. There was something so comforting yet visceral about sitting at a rooftop deck at night, taking occasional sips of hot cocoa as you flick through math problems whilst listening to whatever Chet Baker song the cafe decided to play. But alas the wind, Johnny is not one to deny its beauty, it being something worth waiting for in autumn but even he acknowledges how when snow begins to fall, the torment it brings about is hell on earth.

So maybe it was a mistake, Johnny thinks to himself as he slips on a single earbud, visiting Dumbo in hopes of an epiphany of sorts. A part of him feels foolish, this year is nothing to joke about and if he wants (Correction, his mother) that acceptance letter to Harvard, he can’t afford to spend any more nights like this. Not when senior year is right around the corner. As a miscellaneous EDM song from his playlist begins to blast aloud, Johnny tells himself that he’ll always have tomorrow to finish the set after dinner at Halmeoni’s, for now he’ll close his eyes and wait until the conductor announces their arrival at Jackson Heights. 

“A Sky Full of Stars, really?” 

Johnny supposes that an empty subway car must have its demerits, sometimes it’d be the pungent odor of someone’s left over cheese that you can’t escape or may it be an unspoken sense of dreadful uneasiness drifting in the wind. This time, it comes in the form of an airy voice from the other corner of the car. 

“How’d you even hear what I was playing?” Johnny asks half-heartedly as he pauses his playlist to look up at whoever had just shared their preference. Sure, maybe he could be listening to something a bit more niche than Coldplay but hey, this song isn’t all that bad. It was a hit for a reason.

“First of all, I’d have you know that your volume is incredibly loud and second of all, I think we’ve all heard that piano intro a bit too many times.” They respond sarcastically, the person in question is a boy, maybe around Johnny’s age, maybe younger. He’s got dyed blond hair that’s tucked away beneath an olive green beanie. His red floral shirt seems to do little to protect him from the bitter cold outside but he doesn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

“Aren’t you freezing?” Johnny questions, lifting his eyebrow at the boy as he clutches onto the sleeves of his gray parka, it’s not like he owes the boy a thousand word long speech on how Coldplay’s not that bad contrary to popular belief, “It’s literally minus degrees out there.” 

The boy laughs, something about it is adamantly crisp yet jovial all the same. It feels consoling somehow, a sliver of warmth hours before the arrival of an upcoming snowstorm. Johnny can’t help but chuckle back, mirth can be contagious. 

“Kind of, but it’s also my fault I forgot to bring extra layers, I’ll deal with it.” They shrug nonchalantly as they stand up to walk over beside him. Johnny hesitates for a moment, if this is how he’s going out, he’s not really upset. “You haven’t told me why you were listening to Chris Martin though.” 

“First of all, it’s just a song.” Johnny sighs tiredly as his eyes find their way to the book on the boy’s grasp, it’s a worn out romance novel. Judging on its title, it seems like some teen romance novel that never sold out, something sold half-off at some hole in the wall bookstore. Obscured and sheltered. “What’s up with you and Chris Martin anyways? You’re reading a romance novel for god’s sake, that’s even more basic in your standards.” He offers in an attempt to balance them out.

“If it’s just a song why can’t you listen to anything else?” 

“What do you suggest I listen to then?”

The boy seems satisfied and pulls out their own pair of earphones, it’s tangled but his fingers work swiftly to unravel them from their knots. His twinkling brown eyes dart to the upper panel that displays where they’re at. Delancey. 

“Two more stops, just enough time to listen to one song.” The boy grins, a wide smile that only reminds Johnny of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. He’s got a mischievous glint in his eyes as he scrolls through his playlists before selecting a song and handing Johnny his earbud, he’s still pretty though. 

A soft melody plays, the strumming of a single guitar followed with the arrival of rough vocals and the drums. Johnny might not have the most stellar taste but even he can sing along to Iris any day of the week. He keeps mum though, his mouth pursed shut as the other boy hums along. He’s got a pretty voice, it’s clear and airy. A breath of fresh air after a particularly foggy night. It’s a nice contrast from all the Christmas music he’s been subjected to from all four walls of the world.

“I’m Johnny.” 

He glances at the boy beside him and although there’s a singular seat wedged between them, Johnny still thinks sharing earphones with a stranger is an oddly intimate thing to do in a New York subway car on Christmas Eve when you’re supposed to be at home doing god knows what.

“Ten, don’t ask.”

And Johnny doesn’t, not as he stifles his chortle and leans closer to listen to the song without complaint.

“I don’t think you’re in the right place to judge my taste when you’re reading a Stephanie Meyers knockoff.” 

Now it’s Ten’s turn to roll his eyes, he’d be foolish to say that he hadn’t seen it coming. To be fair, the mere idea of reading this stupid book about soulmates hadn’t even been one of his more questionable decisions. This time, it’d been his English teacher’s, that and his horrible time management skills because by the time he’d arrived at his school’s library, all the decent romance (Read : Anything but this) novels had been borrowed. 

“I find it cute that you think I’m reading this on my own accord.” Ten snorts, it’s not the worst thing he’s ever read really, he’s read worse on Wattpad in his youth. Nothing can faze him after fifty thousand words of incoherent Larry drabbles. Nothing.

“So you’re not?” 

Johnny’s nice but even Ten can tell that he’s not particularly happy this night. It’s strange really, a seemingly put together boy his age, alone on Christmas Eve in a questionably empty subway car. Ten doesn’t make it a point to prod though, he’s got two minutes left before he arrives at Lafayette for transit back to Harlem. A part of him regrets having gone out so late at night simply for the sake of meeting Yuta in this part of the city. Because it’s nearing twelve and he’s nowhere near home. 

“School assignment.” Ten nods briskly before attempting to stuff the novel in his satchel, upon opening it he notices a rip the size of his thumb on the bottom of the bag. He frowns at the thought of having to sew it up but considering how he’s got the rest of winter break and zero plans, he should be grateful that his to-do list is beginning to accumulate in itself. 

“Your teacher’s making you read ‘Heartbreaker, a tale of two lovers trapped between walls,’ really?” Johnny pertains as he reads off the top half of the book Ten hasn’t stored away, “I know our education system is literal garbage but I still find that highly unbelievable.”

“She didn’t but that was the only book left when I checked it out at the library earlier.” Ten informs him matter-of-factly, a grin gracing his lips, “We have this book report thing due tomorrow and I have not started anything at all.” 

So yes, perhaps Ten should’ve been at home working full time on finishing the novel and his report. But it’d been boring there, having to hone in to his mom and his sister arguing for what seemed to be the fourth time this week alone was not something he particularly enjoyed. Plus, Yuta had offered to pay for coffee and that had been the final straw for him to get out of the house.

“Hmm, let’s see, do you know what it’s about?” 

“Do you really want to know?” Ten scoffs at the suggestion, amused at the thought of this (honestly) rather charming stranger wanting to know more about his shitty book intrigues him. And as Johnny agrees shruggingly, Ten brushes away the thought of CSI episodes that parallel this moment right now before he leans back to his seat. 

“Well, it’s basically a crappy modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet with the introduction of this soulmate system which just makes the whole story even more confusing.” 

“Soulmates?” Johnny asks, he seems entertained by their conversation and for some reason that makes him smile too, talk about Christmas magic.

“You’ve got anything against them?” 

“No, it’s just, they’re not real.” Johnny laughs, a full bodied one that only allows Ten to lift his own eyebrows. “Why would you spend your time on something that’s fictional?”

As the train shoots off from Second Avenue where no one had gotten on board, Ten thinks more than he probably should because he does not want to waste his final minute with Johnny telling him about this. But he does so anyways.

Ten’s perplexed and he’s not quite sure on what to say. There’s something daunting yet mitigating about the unknown, about trusting in something beyond your existence. To be quite fair, he hadn’t even thought that far into the idea of soulmates at all, if anything he’s always thought of it as something fun and possibly something even benefitting. To think that some external force could drag you close to someone, perhaps someone you’ve never met, someone you’ve never uttered a single word to. It’s powerful Ten supposes, to trust that everything would work out somehow.

“We all do, we watch movies, we dream about dreams that are so far out of reach.” Ten explains, incapable of letting go of the conversation at hand, “Don’t tell me that you don’t do any of those things.” He adds after a moment, a sarcastic touch to his otherwise bland statement. 

“Yeah but this idea of having a soulmate in practice would just be impractical, don’t you think?” Johnny rebutts, holding onto the strings of this conversation, all of him knows that it will never lead to anything, not the sudden epiphany he’s been hoping for but it he knows that he needs this. It’s been a while since he’s had a conversation, with anyone really, with all the after-school club meetings and photography gigs. “What if our one, singular, soulmate lives half-way across the world and we meet them once in our life and we don’t even notice it when we do.”

“Tough luck.” 

“Seriously?” Johnny turns his head to face Ten properly, pondering what had prompted his fast defeat.

“Well I think that some people do have them, don’t you ever see couples in public and just think, wow, they’re definitely meant to be.” Ten suggests naively, a curious beam on his lips as he offers his entente on the matter. "I swear I've seen some red strings drifting in the wind holding some people together." He adds, words chaste as his cheeks flush red. 

"Yeah but, I mean, how would you define what makes you think that they work well with each other?" Johnny insists as he throws his hands in his air, perhaps too animated for Ten's preference but he still finds it enjoyable to witness nonetheless, "Some red string from some god somewhere might not have all the answers to love you know?" 

“The ‘X’ factor.” Ten declares proudly as he places his hands on his hips causing Johnny to fall back in laughter, “What? You totally know what I mean.” 

“Yeah I suppose so. I’ve always thought that the ability to carry on a conversation about nothing and everything at once was something soulmates definitely have with one another.” Johnny explains his own take on the matter, of which makes Ten flutter, they’d found middle ground. “My parents argue all the time, and most of the time it’s not even about anything significant. But I know they still love each other, that’s why they take time out of their day to banter.”

“So you’re certain your parents are soulmates?” Ten questions in an attempt to shift the conversation elsewhere, Johnny’s words hit close to heart, he’d felt that way too about his parents’ bickering. It’d almost be like a way to tell him that he was finally home after a bitter day slaving away working on projects for school.

“One hundred percent, don’t you?”

“I think so.” Ten replies after a moment, the certainty in Johnny’s words reaffirms him somehow, that maybe some things were set in stone afterall. Maybe things would work out for him, maybe he’d finish this report and send in that application for the school’s dance club, maybe things would finally turn around. Maybe he’ll get his shit together. 

Their eyes meet and somehow it feels like the moment is paused, like a scene in a winter snow globe, everlasting and frozen in time. Johnny smiles as he gestures to Ten to continue on but before he has enough time to pour out his life story, the conductor announces that they’ve reached Lafayette. 

“I’ve got to go, it was nice talking to you.” Ten informs Johnny before he walks over to the doors, upon taking his earbud from the taller boy’s ears, fingers brushing upon his face for a second and nothing less. He cringes at his own words, he doesn’t sound like himself but then again he’d never said goodbye to a stranger in an empty subway car on Christmas Eve before. “Thanks for telling me that you think we’re soulmates, may it be directly or indirectly.” 

“Huh-“

“What you said earlier about the-“

“Oh.” Johnny responds, a fiery red making their way to his ears. He doesn’t seem too bummed out about it either so maybe he had been making a hit on him after all.

“Merry Christmas Johnny.” Ten nods as he finally steps over the gap bridging the car from the platform, “And for your information, I definitely think we have the ‘X’ factor.”

Many things happen in our lives that we don’t necessarily expect but we need, Johnny thinks as he looks outside the window behind him. The subway emerging from the ground and finally seeing the night light. The full moon is shining bright as snow falls like the powdered sugar on Jaehyun’s favorite donuts, something that he has yet to buy for tomorrow’s basketball practice slash mini get together at the latter’s place. 

And as much as Johnny regrets not asking Ten for his number and a single clue about what he thinks about soulmates, he smirks at the moon, full of hope that the unknown won’t be so cruel. That things won’t go south if he doesn’t finish his set of math problems right this moment. If Johnny knows one thing for sure it’d be that he’s had many questionable experiences on New York subways that irk Johnny more than he’d like to admit, but meeting Ten tonight is certainly not one of them. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ODETO10) and [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/gymewm6sqkr42wxfdibu8612e?si=pY85msJ-T6m5IpJJ-AO8kw)


End file.
